DANVILLE – What happens when one person’s passionate advocacy becomes another’s bureaucratic headache?
That clash has reached a breaking point in Danville, where months of disagreements over the role of the town’s Bicycle Advocacy Commission recently boiled over into threats from elected officials to dissolve the volunteer body entirely — less than two years after its inception.
But savvy civic diplomacy narrowly has pivoted those heated conflicts into compromise, at least temporarily.
On Tuesday, the town council voted 3-1 to allow the bike commission to continue its scheduled meetings through the end of 2024. That decision, however, is only an interim stopgap for a kerfuffle that has been years in the making.
Danville has increasingly become a hotbed for enthusiastic cyclists who traverse the town’s extensive network of bike lanes, routes and access points to destinations like Mount Diablo State Park and the Iron Horse Trail. The town started crafting its first ever Bicycle Master Plan in early 2020, aiming to support the connectivity and safety needs of an influx of riders, while simultaneously preserving the town’s semi-rural character.
By 2022, the bike commission was formed to help educate the public about ongoing projects and programs, as well as the hazards that come with being on two wheels. But over the last 18 months, some residents and town officials said a few of the passionate commissioners have taken their role in building a culture of biking in Danville too far; concerns of harassment from commissioners previously led to a moratorium on communicating with town staff outside of the group’s meetings.
That tension morphed last month into accusations that some of the volunteer commissioners have repeatedly tormented town staff and hijacked meetings — eventually reaching a level of dysfunction that some say has prevented the group from adequately doing its job.
Councilmembers have directed much of their ire at Al Kalin, an advocate who’s spent years trying to improve the safety of bicycling on Mount Diablo through data-driven models and analysis. That activism culminated in being awarded Contra Costa County’s “Bike Champion of the Year” in 2023, due to his work to through a “first-of-its-kind project that has become a model for biking safety across the nation.”
Councilmember Robert Storer was the lone vote in support of dissolving the commission during Tuesday’s meeting. Councilmember Newell Arnerich was absent.
In a series of emails last month with Bruce Bilodeau, the commission’s chair, Storer said some of the town’s administrators and department heads had sat down to share their frustrations, but behaviors did not change. Storer accused Bilodeau and Kalin of acting more like lobbyists than commissioners, which led to the conclusion that there is “no good reason to continue this concept.”
“You have angered staff each and every step of the way,” Storer wrote to Bilodeau on April 5. “You have hijacked meetings to fit your own agenda. You have monopolized staff’s time as if they work for you. You have not made the bicycle experience a good one and it’s time for it to go.”
During an April 9 study session, the council started discussing whether the bike commission was the most effective means to implement Danville’s master bicycle plan. As a result, town staff researched potential avenues to replace it with an entirelly different advisory board, and presented the subsequent ordinance during the May 7 meeting, which was ultimately rejected.
Rather than delay the discussion to a future date, Mayor Karen Stepper proposed a motion to preserve the group as-is through the end of the year.
She said that kind of compromise was the best way to resolve the “duress that this commission has been under by outside forces on this council.” She said she particularly wanted to avoid derailing the commission’s ongoing, time-sensitive work to improve bicycle safety in Danville — including issues such as sidewalk access rules, roadway improvement plans and best design practices to mitigate collisions.
“It is clear that a comprehensive list of items that demand the attention of the town council require expertise of the bicycle people, and time is of the essence,” Stepper said Tuesday, explaining how she believes the BAC’s work has the potential to save lives. “I’m very concerned that we make sure our commissioners feel that they have the support of the staff and the community in their palm.”
Vice Mayor Dave Fong agreed. He said preserving the commission — at least for now — avoids unduly inundating other town staff to take over such specialized, complex work. Trying to pump the brakes on the vote, he also argued that disciplinary actions should come before more drastic efforts like dissolving the commission entirely, especially if the issue only involves a few individuals.
“These are volunteers, it’s not like they’re our employees,” Fong said. “I would want to go through some due diligence and really exercise due process — giving people the ability to understand what the accusations are, and be able to respond.”
Kalin said he was pleased that a majority of the town council agreed that the group should continue its work throughout the rest of the year.
“We’re doing our absolute best to reduce collisions and save lives on the roads and trails of Danville,” he said in an interview. “I appreciate the support of the three town members who voted to maintain the BAC.”
While the commission avoided being eliminated, it hasn’t gone unscathed during this whole debacle.
One commissioner, David Williams, has already opted out of reapplying after his term with the group expires by the end of June, citing how frequently meetings get sidetracked by passionate advocacy.
But prior to the vote Tuesday night, Bilodeau pleaded to postpone any decision about reorganizing the commission — highlighting a list of accomplishments the group has successfully tackled in the last 18 months.
While evaluating how to best protect cars, bicycles and pedestrians on Danville’s roads, intersections and sidewalks, he argued that the current commission has specialized, institutional knowledge that is vital to the town’s safety projects, in addition to established connections with key outside stakeholders, including the East Bay Regional Parks District and cycling groups across the San Ramon Valley.
“Reorganizing the commission will damage its relationships and harm Danville’s reputation for welcoming cyclists,” Bilodeau said. “The commission’s laser focus is to implement the town’s bicycle master plan, while doing everything we can to maximize the safety of cyclists and people in Danville.”